page_title: Masonry oven
section_title: Efficiency and use
hierarchical_section_title: Masonry oven / Efficiency and use
caption_attribution_description: English: A masonry wood-fired oven, during the firing (heating) stage.
context_page_description: A masonry oven, colloquially known as a brick oven or stone oven, is an oven consisting of a baking chamber made of fireproof brick, concrete, stone, clay, or cob. Though traditionally wood-fired, coal-fired ovens were common in the 19th century, and modern masonry ovens are often fired with natural gas or even electricity. Modern masonry ovens are closely associated with artisanal bread and pizza, but in the past they were used for any cooking task involving baking. Masonry ovens are built by masons.
context_section_description: Masonry ovens remain popular in part because of the way their use affects cooking processes and food flavor. Where modern gas or electric ovens cook food by moving hot air around inside an insulated, lightweight box, a masonry oven works by soaking up heat, like a battery building up a full charge. When hot, the heavy oven walls release the heat slowly, for hours. Thus the food is cooked not only by hot air but also by radiant heat from hot dense masonry and especially for bread and pizza, which are not cooked in pans, heat conducted directly into the food from hot floor bricks (bakers call the resulting added rising action of bread "oven spring".) Finally, a masonry oven seals in the steam produced by the water in cooking food. A supercharged steamy atmosphere produces a more flavorful and chewy crust (see Maillard reaction); it also keeps other foods moist and tender. The triple combination of radiant, conductive, and convected heat also speeds cooking.
  Wood-burning masonry ovens are mandated for production of true Neapolitan pizza.
caption: A masonry wood-fired oven, during the firing (heating) stage
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